U.S. Effort to Help India Build Up Navy Hits Snag

>The U.S. and India are drawing closer politically and militarily. The two have participated in joint naval exercises with Japan. The U.S. has agreed to sell New Delhi everything from attack helicopters to artillery. Washington has approved proposals by Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. to make advanced jet fighters in India. And in August, the two countries signed a military logistics-sharing accord.

>The emerging relationship has reshaped Asia’s geopolitical terrain, riling China, which has issued diplomatic complaints over the joint exercises, and sometimes sidelining Russia, long India’s largest supplier of military hardware.

>Both Indian and American officials say they hope cooperation will grow under President-elect Donald Trump, who has signaled a tougher approach toward China. After the U.S. election, the American Ambassador to India said the ties forged with India under President Barack Obama were “irreversible.”

>The centerpiece of the military cooperation are the aircraft carriers.

>“Of all the U.S.’s efforts to cooperate with India’s military, the aircraft carrier project is the one with the biggest potential payout and could make the biggest difference to the regional balance of power,” said Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former U.S. adviser in New Delhi.

>But U.S. concerns are growing about India’s military strategy. Experts worry New Delhi’s insistence on building complex military gear largely from scratch, a legacy of its period of nonalignment, has led to severe delays in modernizing its carriers, jet fighters and nuclear submarines and limited its ability to fight.

>A Indian Defense Ministry spokesman declined to comment beyond saying that its aircraft carriers were “still under progress.” A Navy spokesman declined to comment. Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar recently reiterated a commitment to indigenous manufacturing, citing concerns that foreign supply of arms and ammunition could be cut off in a time of war. “I think self-dependence is very important,” he said.

>China, meanwhile, is rapidly expanding its military forces. It launched its first aircraft carrier in 2012 and is building two more. Chinese state-owned companies have invested in strategic ports circling the Indian Ocean in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Pakistan, that have resupplied its naval vessels. And China is now building its first overseas military outpost in Djibouti.

>Chinese officials have rejected assertions that they are pursuing military objectives in the Indian Ocean, saying submarines resupplying in Sri Lanka were heading to the Gulf of Aden on antipiracy missions.

>India, for its part, pledged funding last year for a new port in Iran where India’s own ships could potentially resupply for Indian Ocean missions. And it is seeking to match China’s naval force by adding two Indian-built carriers to the Russian one it now operates.


>The first homemade Indian carrier, the INS Vikrant, has fallen short of expectations. An Indian state audit, released in July, found serious faults in its design and construction, from gear boxes to jet launching systems and air conditioning units.

>The shipyard building the carrier, which has already cost $3 billion, “had no previous experience of warship construction” and is five years behind schedule, the audit said. India’s military sticks by its 2018 deadline.

>Other experts said the ship’s hull was built before the navy had decided on some of the weapons systems, likely hampering its eventual performance. India’s homemade Tejas jet fighters, which are slated to fly from the Vikrant alongside squadrons of Russian jets, are also struggling to take off and land with an adequate payload on a simulated flight deck where they are being tested, people familiar with its testing said.

>The upshot, these experts say: the carrier’s defensive flaws make it unlikely to able to operate in important theaters like the Persian Gulf or off the eastern coast of Africa, outside of the protective range of India’s land-based air force.

>Still, the U.S. Navy plans to step up cooperation, pinning its hopes on India’s second homemade carrier, which promises to be far larger and contain more advanced technology. While carriers are losing their relevancy with the proliferation of cheap antiship missiles and advanced attack submarines, they are still likely to remain at the core of most major navies for some decades.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-effort-to-help-india-build-up-navy-hits-snag-1480501812

tl;dr the Indian Navy's first indigenous carrier is a piece of shit to the extent that it surprised US officials who went to see it

>>32205588
>China’s navy will be the biggest in the world soon
Lel, they really love exaggerating things.

In addition, the Tejas is too fat to operate from a carrier

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/navy-rules-out-deploying-overweight-tejas-on-aircraft-carriers-1633338

They need to step up their space program too....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCATSAT-1

>>32205660

How is ''largest'' defined? Total tonnage or total number of craft?

If I was an eccentric millonaire and bought several hundred zodiacs and gifted them to sealands, would sealand then have the worlds largest navy?

>>32205588
>your pic is why I love my Navy. Greater tonnage than the next 10 countries combined, China didn't even make its first carrier. Pathetic.

>>32205588
>China’s navy will be the biggest in the world soon

Impressive

It is expected, but when an enemy says you are the strongest. It just says much about your strentgh.

>>32205660
overreacting really. They forget china is surrounded by us allies

>>32205680
Why didn't they buy some Rafale for their carrier?

>>32205736
How would I know? Though I really hope the retired admiral wasn't suggesting something as stupid as number of ships when he said "biggest".

>>32205986
It's downright unrealistic. Even according to optimistic projections the PLAN would only have its first nuclear catobar carrier by 2030 if not later. Matching the US navy on all fronts would take very long.

File: India's Naval Might.jpg (188KB, 839x466px) Image search: [Google]

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>>32205588

I couldn't help myself.

>>32205715
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCATSAT-1
holy fuck that's the actual name

DESIGNATED

File: Ghandi Civ 5.jpg (61KB, 819x756px) Image search: [Google]

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>>32206235

>>32205588
Shouldn't those "top American naval engineers" be busy right now fixing the Gerald R. Ford?

>"India's first homegrown fighter, the Tejas light combat aircraft, will finally be delivered next month,
>30 years after it was conceived.
But senior air force officers privately said they were unimpressed, with one former officer, an ex-fighter pilot, saying the plane was "so late it is obsolete".

>"It could lead to humiliation at the hands of our neighbours," AK Sachdev, a retired air force officer, wrote last year in the Indian Defence Review journal."

http://m.firstpost.com/india/yawning-gap-indias-air-force-risks-falling-behind-pakistan-china-2108071.html

>>32206420
Imagine that, they should jana mana hana back to the drawing board

>>32206339
>implying your country could afford more than 10 engineers

POO IN BLUE

The poos are incompetent

File: PLAN by 2020.jpg (200KB, 950x1083px) Image search: [Google]

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>>32205660
Not biggest in the world, but at least one of the biggest.

File: 67IWhMR.png (512KB, 1360x1944px) Image search: [Google]

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>>32209633
Another chart with subs added.

>>32206186
Exactly. Now shut up

>>32209633
Enough to make them #2?

>>32209633
>>32209638

This is also almost entirely operating the the South China Sea and some areas of the Pacific. They certainly have one of the most concentrated navies.

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>>32210190
forgot pic

has anyone heard any new news on the proposal for LM to sell their F-16 production to India?